DALLAS – Business owners on Maple Avenue in Dallas are frustrated with a plan to reduce the number of traffic lanes from four to two. However, some local residents believe this change is necessary.

The change would affect Maple Avenue between Mockingbird Lane and Oak Lawn Avenue.

The two removed lanes will be transformed into a turn lane and a cycle path in each direction.

“It’s going to kill some of these businesses here,” said Martin Guajardo, Avila’s manager.

Guajardo estimates that cutting the number of traffic lanes in half will create traffic jams that will scare away his customers.

“A lot of our business comes from the medical district, downtown and Oak Lawn Heights,” he said. “They have a very short time to come and eat – an hour usually. They’re going to be stuck in traffic for 30 minutes. That’s really going to hurt business. And a lot of these businesses, they’re all mom and pop.”

The city of Dallas said it was proposing the change to make Maple Avenue safer.

According to a city presentation, Maple Avenue, between Hudnall Street and Oak Lawn Avenue, tops the list of city streets with crashes that kill or seriously injure pedestrians.

Jorge Garza lives in the neighborhood and said he has been asking the city for years to do something to make Maple Avenue safer.

“People have died here,” he said. “These drivers are becoming very aggressive.”

Garza said crossing Maple Avenue was almost impossible.

“It has the best chicken tacos I can find in town, and I can’t walk the six blocks. My wife and I get off, and when we cross, there are at least three intersections where we don’t “We’re not safe,” he said. said.

Garza believes the changes will not only improve safety, but also quality of life.

But business leaders see things differently.

Guajardo said area businesses are geared toward drivers, not pedestrians.

“They’re not going to walk. It’s not really a walking zone. They’re not going to walk with bags full of groceries from the corner grocery store. They’re not going to carry their laundry baskets and walk to the laundromat They’re going to drive and it’s going to restrict access to all these businesses up and down Maple.

And what frustrated many business owners was that the city never informed them of the proposed changes. They have just become aware of it, two and a half months after the public consultation deadline.

“We didn’t know anything about it,” he said. “My wife had seen it on TikTok. My brother also sent me something. We talked to a few people on the street. No one knew about it.”

A meeting took place Friday afternoon between the City’s transportation department and the stakeholders. There is no word yet on the outcome.

Construction was expected to begin in about a year.